Chiff and Fipple Forums

Pat Sky practice set US only.

David

BigDavy wrote:Pat Sky practice set US only.

David

I saw that. Why the metal tube in Hole 6? Does Pat do that?

pancelticpiper wrote: I saw that. Why the metal tube in Hole 6? Does Pat do that?

He does - it has a similar function like the marmorka on gaida chanters, to create more chimney height and thus simulate greater wall thickness for that fingerhole.

I saw that on one of his chanters a few years ago, and e-mailed him about it. He said he added the tubing rather than simply starting with a smaller hole. He didn't say why, he just said he did it that way.

Years before this, I did the same thing on a D. Williams D chanter and found that it helped the E's, they really shifted between octaves. I can't remember which was sharp and which was flat (I believe the 2nd octave E was quite sharp), but making the hole smaller with the bit of tubing really helped. The piece was quite thin and I shaped it to make the vent smaller, then sanded the edges and wound it with waxed thread to hold it in place - harmless & removable if needed.

I had the notion after seeing a photo of a Taylor chanter that had some sort of insert in the same hole, for similar reasons, I guessed.

Roberts half set in D - US only.

David

Interesting.

In my experience E is usually sharper in the low octave and flatter in the 2nd octave.

Baroque flute makers had various things, putting a slight bulge in the bore near a finger-hole, or inserting a tiny tapered reamer inside to cut away the edge of the chimney on the inside, or angling the finger-holes, to correct various tuning issues between the registers.

I don't know of them inserting a tube to increase chimney height, my impression is that they would do the opposite, start with the wall-thickness that gave the deepest-necessary chimney, then cut away the chimneys on the other holes.

Are there old chanters with increased thickness around the E holes? That's what Hungarian and Romanian chanters do, rather than insert a tube, for the mormorka.

Wooff full set US only, relisted yet again.

David

Sorry - you are correct (I was not sure)...I checked it last night. The low E is, without the insert very, very sharp - like 35-40 cents sharp and just sounds terrible. At the same time, the high E is more or less where it should be (per tuner), around 5 cents sharp.

But with the insert, the low E drops into place and the high E remains about where it should be, maybe slightly flatter (than w/o the insert).

The hole is roughly 5 mm without the insert and it reduces it to about 4 mm.

Sorry - you are correct (I was not sure)...I checked it last night. The low E is, without the insert very, very sharp - like 35-40 cents sharp and just sounds terrible. At the same time, the high E is more or less where it should be (per tuner), around 5 cents sharp.

But with the insert, the low E drops into place and the high E remains about where it should be, maybe slightly flatter (than w/o the insert).

The hole is roughly 5 mm without the insert and it reduces it to about 4 mm.

Yes that makes sense, on every D chanter I've had there's around a 20 cent difference between Low E and High E.

For sure there are numerous ways around it. I've seen many pipers have their whole 2nd octave tuned flatter than I do, then High F# is too flat so they use a different fingering to bring it up.

On my chanter not only is High E a hair sharp but so is High A. My High F# and High G are bang-on. I've got into the habit of "shading" Low E, as well as backing off on the pressure a bit, while for High E I give it a little extra pressure.

It's cool how well that tube works to fix that E problem.

Roberts half set - US only, relisted.

David

Roberts half set relisted again.

David

vPipes- being sold by an instrument seller in Germany.

David

BigDavy wrote:vPipes- being sold by an instrument seller in Germany.

This listing is a scam. It is reusing photos from the set of vPipes recently linked here and sold from England. There is also a photo with contact info that I think is requesting potential buyers to email the listed address and that the seller is "listing for a friend, please contact him directly". I'm not fluent in German, however...

I also noticed at least two or three other auctions (from one seller, different than this listing) with the exact same photos and photo with German text.

It is written in very, hm - strange German... probably automatically translated, from whatever language.